That is where the dumb phone comes in which only deals with calls/SMS.

My country has some of the best internet in the world now that I think of it... just didn't realize none of that was that common elsewere, here you can go to a corner store, as in they sell groceries, and buy a sim card for 1usd, then activate it, and put money on it with cash at that same grocery store, or pay fully online, not so long ago, you didn't even needed an ID to activate those.

If you have to buy a dumb phone for your smartphone then you did not buy a smartphone, is my point

Try Neo Backup.

It's worked pretty well for me in the past.

That does sound fucking based, but probably can't run android apps as well right?

As gross as Google's endless enshittification is, I blame the consumers for most of it. People vote with their wallets and they've been voting for the locked up walled garden crap option for the past two decades, especially in the US, where there is literally a culture of "ew, you have a green message bubble!" and chasing a status symbol is way more important than things like actual ownership over your devices, digital freedom and customization. And funnily enough, Google's hardware sales have started increasing steadily since they've started copying Apple's shitty model.

ROMS have (almost) always been incomplete works. They have always been sideprojects, by tech enthusiasts that wanted to learn. They just happen to share those projects to any who would be interested, with no warranty.

Isn't GrapheneOS just another android os?

LiberuxOS contain jailed Android I think. Bit if not you can install Waydroid.

In any case, this is the other side of freedom. For some reason, people want corporations to provide them with convenient functions and applications for free and not take anything as a substitute. It doesn't happen that way, communism hasn't arrived. Either convenience under the wing of corporations, or freedom in all its wild splendor.

UPD: Freedom systems will never even become popular and convenient if everyone chooses the convenience of corporate systems.

Only for Google Pixels

Ah yes, the consumers having no real practical alternative between apple and android means they support all the bullshit Google is forcing onto android ^/s^

How do you propose I vote with my wallet when using something like grapheneOS requires buying a pixel?

I mean, if google is on track to ban sideloading, there's not doubt they will also ban bootloader unlocking.

Why is this a problem?

If you can't even install software on it then its not an overly smartphone.

AOSP

Android Open Source Project

look inside

not open source

mfw

GraphineOS is the epitome of paying against your values then using foss without giving back.

Murena sells phones with e/os already installed, and there seems to be others too where you can buy a phone: iodé , jolla, pine64, pureos,

Soo, anyone ELI5. If Android is basically Linux, how hard would it be - given drivers are not an issue - so just make a Linux phone and mass produce it? You probably don't have that many apps, but it will be possible to call and/or use messaging apps.

I spent $500 on a Murena only for the thing to brick a month later because the cord or whatever connecting the rechargable battery to the rest of the phone somehow split off. Would've been open to shipping the thing back to them for a repair/replacement since a local shop was unable to do so, but they use UPS for shipping and there was no way in hell I was going to deal with the absolute mess it was to receive the phone to begin with a second time.

Probably this hard:
https://postmarketos.org/

By not using GrapheneOS obviously.

Also GrapheneOS is about security not about privacy or freedom. So GrapheneOS is just not really part of the discussion here.